In this series, we’re looking at four questions about repentance: 1) Why repent? 2) What is repentance? 3) How do we repent? And 4) what is our assurance in repentance? We’re centering around 1 John 1:5-9, which reads:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
What Is Repentance?
In terms of language, the Greek word for repentance means to change one’s mind. We know, however, from the context and witness of scripture, that true repentance is a changed mind resulting in a changed life.
But practically, what are we talking about? I propose two categories, both of which are described and mandated in God’s Word.
The first is once-for-all repentance. It’s an acknowledgement of our separation from God and our need for him, and then changing our mind about God such that we give him our lives. It’s what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 7 where he tells us “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
This kind of repentance is the difference between heaven and hell, between being in Christ and being in darkness. Have you heard Paul was overjoyed at the “godly sorrow” that produced repentance and then transformation? Do you remember what Jesus says in Luke 15: “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons.” This is the initial repentance at the moment of our salvation, when we, by the power and prodding of the Spirit, see our utter need of him and surrender our lives not to our desires, but to God’s.
So there is this first repentance that leads to conversion, that comes with our justification in Christ. And our temptation is to think that’s it. After all, if we’re no longer under condemnation, do we need to keep repenting? Does God even care about our sins anymore?
As his Word testifies, he does and we must.
The second kind of repentance is ongoing. We are not repenting for the purpose of our justification—we’ve already done that—now we repent because our sins disrupt our fellowship with Christ. Even though we are saved, we can still be distant from God.
1 John was written to those who were already Christians, and yet he tells them to keep repenting. He says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Likewise, Jesus taught those who were already his disciples to pray, “Forgive us our sins.”
We are constantly going back to God, and he is constantly working to reorient our hearts and reform our minds to be more like him. Such continuing repentance is evidence—and must bear fruit, as Jesus says in Luke 3—of our salvation. Repentance is evidence, perhaps ironically, that we are “walking in the light,” rather than darkness.
So repentance and faith go together. Our being born again is the occasion of our first, all-encompassing repentance—shifting our minds and lives toward God’s way. But the life of a Christian is repeatedly returning to repentance—as often as we need it, hopefully less and less as we mature in Christ, but never leaving it behind—not for our salvation, but as evidence and reliance on Christ’s work for and in us.
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